Wednesday, 2 May 2018

Windows 10 April 2018 update is already out for the Windows 10 devices and it has got some great improvements over the previous versions of it. If you have still not received the update, open settings and check for the update manually to get the update and if the update is still not available for your PC, you may download and install it manually using Windows 10 update assistant.
I installed the update in my laptop and the installation went smooth and I didn't notice and errors or bugs during the installation. The previous windows updates, especially monthly cumulative updates caused lots of problems during installation but the Windows 10 April 2018 update (Feature update to Windows 10, version 1803) installed easily.
After it got installed, It's welcome screen opened with Edge browser and I noticed improvements in display resolution and windows graphical elements. The new Windows 10 April 2018 update has a few new features as well which I'll mention below. With this update, Microsoft has removed a few features too which you can check In This MS Document. Let's have a look on what's new in Windows 10 April 2018 Update.

1. TIMELINE
Timeline replaces the familiar "Task View" button that shows what apps are currently running. Timeline as well, shows the list of what apps are running and along with that, it shows the history of activities and apps you've used in the past 30 days. These activities and apps sync across multiple devices and you can easily pick the same activity in any device you are signed into with your Microsoft account.

2. DICTATION
This feaure of Windows 10 is like speech to text but is more accurate and easy to access. If your computer's default language is set to English-US, you can use the dictation feature by pressing Windows + H keys together. If you have a good mic, you can write a whole document just by speaking the sentences. I'm impressed with the accuracy of the dictation tool, it is amazing (you should have a clear English accent to use this feature efficiently)

3. MICROSOFT EDGE TAB MUTING
Google chrome has added this feature recently, and Microsoft also brings the feature to it's Edge browser with April 2018 update. Using this feature, you can mute loud and annoying websites (with autoplay enabled video ads). Edge certainly seems to be a better option for browsing the web with this feature, but still it couldn't compete with chrome and requires improvements.

4. FIX BLURRY APPS
In windows 10, you might have noticed that scaling some of the apps in windows 10 makes them blurry. With this update, Microsoft has fixed the issue and the apps will be auto adjusted to look sharp and clear even after scaling them or changing the monitor.

5. SEPARATE PREFERENCES FOR DIFFERENT APPS
This is a great feature that has been added in Windows 10 April 2018 update. You can now set input and output devices per application. For example, you can set your woofers for Spotify app and can set headphones for browser. In the same way, you can set your desk mic for podcasting app and studio mic for your music recording software at the same time.

6. QUICK BLUETOOTH PAIRING
Microsoft has added quick notification for pairing Bluetooth accessories. Whenever a Bluetooth peripheral would be in range, Windows will produce a notification to quickly connect to the Bluetooth peripheral (such as Bluetooth mouse).

7. LESS NOTIFICATIONS FOR WINDOWS DEFENDER
Windows defender scan notifications are really annoying sometimes and with this update, Microsoft has reduced these notifications. You can now suppress these notifications and get rid of the windows defender notifications after every successful scan.

8. NEARBY SHARING
This is a feature similar to Apple's AirDrop that allows you to share files with nearby Bluetooth enabled devices. Nearby sharing lets you easily share website, photos or documents to any nearby Windows 10 machine. This feature is disabled by default in Windows 10 and you can enable it from settings.

9. FOCUS ASSIST
Microsoft's "Quiet Hours" is now "Focus Assist". It is same as the Airplane Mode of Android. Focus Assist will mute all the notifications when you are busy and don't want to be disturbed. You still have a choice to allow particular apps of your choice to show notifications while the Focus Assist is active.

10. MANUAL GAMING PERFORMANCE
With Windows 10 April 2018 update, you can customize graphics performance per game. Using this feature, you can set games to High Performance or Power Saving. This feature is useful if you want to play a game allowing it to use limited graphics resources to save battery.

If you have installed the new Windows 10 April 2018 update, share your experience with it in the comments. If there are any issues with your PC after installing it, please let me know and I'll try to get some troubleshooting steps to fix those issues.